Tourist Attraction in Cagliari:Museo di Bonaria

The sanctuary museum of Our Lady of Bonaria is located in the cloister of the Bonaria sanctuary in Cagliari. The museum is made up of the ex voto offered by the faithful to the Madonna di Bonaria, archaeological finds, naval models and sacred furnishings. It consists of a corridor on the convent cloister and three halls. In the corridor on the cloister there are votive and ex-vote voters of various kinds, for most maritime themes. Here, too, is preserved what is left of the wooden chest, in which, it is said, the brothers found the statue of the Madonna and Child, on the beach below Bonaria hill, in 1370. There are collections of archaeological finds in the Bonaria hill , already attended in pre-Nuraghic and Phoenician times, which housed a late-Punic and Roman necropolis and where some Christian tombs were found. In the same room is housed the reconstruction of the Aragonese castle and is illustrated the history of the Order of Santa Maria della Mercede. It exhibits about one hundred and fifty ancient naval models that form a sort of summary of the history of naval art, from ancient galleys to modern ships. There is also an ivory boat that was exposed in the sanctuary and signaled the winds outside the gulf. There is also the silver reindeer donated by Queen Margherita of Savoy in 1899 as a thank you for the success of the north pole expedition, led by Luigi Amedeo of Savoia-Aosta, Duke of Abruzzo. In the room are also visible the mummies of some members of Alagon's noble family, dead of plague in 1605; mummification is due to the calcium carbonate formed as they were buried in graves dug into the limestone stone of the sanctuary. It contains the treasure of the basilica, ex voto and precious sacred furnishings offered by sovereigns and popes, including the gold crowns offered by Carlo Emanuele I of Savoy and the gifts offered by Pope Pius XI, Pope Paul VI and Pope John Paul II.